Category: The DayBook

This is the local “big yellow butterfly”. It is the Eastern Swallowtail and I think this one is a male. It is the Virginia State Butterfly. Who knew we had a state butterfly?  Live and learn. I got this picture at about noon today, walking home from volunteering. Check out: Butterflies and Moths of North America.

Today I made an appointment for the cat scan. It is late Monday afternoon. I want to get the cat scan ASAP so I can get the  cystoscopy over before I figure out a way to duck the procedure.

The 2005 links are all fixed up: August 22, 2005 – I didn’t do a August 21, 2005 page.

Going to have to find out what kinds of butterfly we have. We have big yellow ones, big orange ones and big black ones.

Saw the urologist today. The guy is movie star good looking and really young. Mostly I saw his resident who is  even younger.  Naturally, more testing is on the agenda. The cat scan. And, a cystoscopy. I had one of those back in the 1960’s. They stick a tube up into your bladder for a look-see. Cute young doctor said “oh, it is a much simpler procedure now” I don’t believe him. It still involves sticking a tube up where a tube has no business being!

90% chance I have nothing. 5% chance it is something minor. And then there is the other 5%.

Enough of that. Make the next appointments and focus on the new toys at the end of the tube.

Finished up with 2004 – August 20, 2004

Any recession that takes down Reader’s Digest can not be all bad. I know, we should all morn the loss of yet another newspaper/magazine. But, I’ll make an exception for Reader’s Digest. Chapter 11. So, I guess they will hang on for a little longer.

Working on a new hopeless cleanup stuff project – being sure that all the forward links on my old blog work. At this instant my old version of Dreamweaver is working fine as can be running under WINE. And, I have lots of memory on this machine – so, I can just relieve all the days of old and check and fix the links as I go… Today in 2001 Check it out.

Speaking of the recession and books. In earlier summers I was the only one at the pool with library books. Most of the kiddies read hard back books. A few paperbacks. They read the books and left them in a box in the recycle room and I would rescue them and take them to the Friends of the Library. One summer it seemed that every resident had their very own copy of the latest Harry Potter. And the girls – the latest chick lit. Hard cover. This summer it is library books or paperbacks.

Have a HUGE stack of paperwork to fill out for the urologist. Now, I know this is a paperless practice. Suppose they are going to scan my 10 pages of fine print into their system.

I mentioned that I was bribing myself into going to see the urologist. I promised myself a new toy. Possible toys:

• An additional L1 body that I can have converted to IR.
• Something from Apple’s new fall collection.
• A new travel computer.

Now, for you pessimists, what if they say “Mrs Bethany, I am sorry but your tests came back and…” (They always call you Mrs when the news is bad). Am I still going to buy new toys? You bet. The younger generation would get my toys. Carlton would get my money – and he has enough of that already! The kids would like the infrared camera or another Apple toy or two.

I finally decided to do with the Clinic physician told me to do. Well, 1/3 of what she told me to do. She told me to start taking statins (rejected), get a cat scan (rejected) and see a urologist (unwillingly accepted). Finally picked up the phone  and made an appointment for a urology consult. If the urologist sends me for a cat scan – I might do it.

I had to bribe myself. I will give myself a small reward for making the call. And, if I actually go and do what the urologist says – then I get a big treat. A massive treat if many tests are required (and done).

I sort of wanted someone (other than the physician who was practicing defensive medicine) tell me what to do. Carlton said “I don’t know why you would do anything, but do what ever you want.” The nurse  I work for finally allowed as how “you know the urology practice here – they are nice guys”. It decided that was about the only advice I was going to get. And, old hospital nurses are real reluctant to go to the doctor themselves.

But, I can still cancel the appointment, it is Thursday. So only a small treat is in order. Maybe a new app for the iPod. Or a tune or two.

Went looking for butterflies today. All I found was the backend of a bee.

For the record…I was not a Woodstock. Maybe the only elderly hippie that wasn’t.  I think that this:

http://www.woodstockstory.com/bandsperformerssetsplaylists1969.html

is a pretty good list of who performed and what they played.

Partly Cloudy. No not the weather – which is hot and sunny – but the Internet. Or at least my Internet.

Who knows if cloud computing is going to be around in 2 years. Or if it will take over computer based apps. I have tried some. Rejected some. And embraced others.

Big tropical thunder clouds:

1. Most favorite cloud application is Gmail. For a year or so, I didn’t quite trust it and downloaded my email using Thunderbird. Then, I started only downloading my “important” email. Now – Gmail collects and takes care of all my email accounts. I even let it delete mail from my mail servers. I not longer have any computer based email programs.
2. A cloud app that “just works” and that I completely forget about is DropBox. It keeps my passwords all sync-ed up between my two computers, each with a Ubuntu and XP partition. DropBox will do more and I may start using it for “offsite” backup.
3. Foxmarks – now called Xmarks, I think. It keeps my browser bookmarks in sync. DropBox would do that too – but, I have been using Foxmarks since it was a beta.

Little fluffy cloud toys:

1. Google Docs – I just use it for a few files.
2. Remember the Milk – I am not that busy. But, if Alzheimer’s kicks in big time – I might need it.
3. Google Voice – Don’t have very many friends – so I don’t get very  many phone calls from real people.

Summer finally arrived today. It is just plain hot. I am sure I should be annoyed by something. But, it is just too hot to get heated up.

Well, actually, I can get heated up about all this heat and fire over health care. This senior  has no problem with euthanasia and  strongly supports assisted suicide.